Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots finalized their initial 53-man roster on Tuesday, but that was only the first step in building the team for the upcoming 2025 season. Another big part of this process will kick off on Wednesday at noon, when teams can start forming their 16-player practice squads.
All of the players released over the last few days — by both the Patriots and the league’s other 31 clubs — are potential candidates to get added to that group. It would therefore not be a surprise if New England’s practice squad eventually consists primarily of familiar names, who spent some if not all of training camp with the organization.
What exactly does all of that mean, though? And what is a practice squad to begin with? Glad you asked.
Prior to the 2020 season, teams were able to keep 10 players on their practice squad. While they could not play in any games unless promoted to the 53-man team, the practice squad did still serve a purpose: is was essentially a second roster to develop younger guys and give teams more personnel to help prepare for upcoming opponents.
The NFL-NFLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement signed into effect in 2020, however, introduced some changes. Practice squad limits initially increased to 12, before the league’s Covid-19 protocols added four more spots. Those protocols are a thing of the past, but the practice squad size remained in place.
As a result, teams are still allowed to carry up to 16 players on top of the 53 already on the active roster.
Despite that 16-player limit, there are some rules in place that govern who exactly can be added to a practice squad. Article 33, Section 4 of the CBA explains who is eligible to join the practice squad, with some modifications made in 2022:
Section 4. Eligibility: Beginning in the 2022 League Year, the Practice Squad shall consist of the following players: (i) players who do not have an Accrued Season of NFL experience; (ii) free agent players who were on the Active List for fewer than nine regular season games during their only Accrued Season(s); (iii) a maximum of ten free agent players per Club who have earned no more than two Accrued Seasons, with such players having no limitation as to the number of games on the game day Active List in either of those seasons; and (iv) a maximum of six free agent players per Club with no limitations as to their number of earned Accrued Seasons; provided, however, that the combined total number of players in categories (iii) and (iv) above may not exceed ten.
What does all of that mean? Let’s start with the basics: accrued seasons.
Per the CBA, a player gets awarded an accrued season for each one during which “he was on, or should have been on, full pay status for a total of six or more regular season...
